3 Reasons Your Organization Should Focus On the Employee Experience
Work is a fundamentally important part of our lives. It’s important for businesses because work is what helps them achieve their goals, mission, vision, etc. Work is important for employees because they spend a significant portion of their time doing work. They need work to pay the bills and provide for their family.
So, organizations need to spend some time thinking about how employees want to work. And try to deliver that kind of employee experience. Because candidates are going to apply and accept job offers from companies that offer the type of work that they feel they will enjoy.
Don’t misunderstand the word “enjoy” in the last sentence. We’re not talking about something frivolous or silly. There are plenty of employers that offer what might be considered hard work and employees love working there because the employee value proposition (EVP) aligns with their work wants and needs.
Given today’s competitive recruiting landscape, organizations can’t simply set and forget their EVP. Companies might want to make the commitment to regularly audit or conduct an EVP pulse check. In fact, it could make some sense to even publicly announce to employees that the company is committed to doing so.
I remember working for a company that told employees they would annually benchmark compensation and benefits to ensure they were paying wages that were internally fair and externally competitive. Conducting the benchmarking activity didn’t always result in changes, but the company was very open about their commitment.
For companies that might be sitting on the fence about this idea, there are three primary reasons that organizations need to regularly examine their employee experience:
- It’s the right thing to do. I do not believe any organization sets out to create a crappy work environment. Unfortunately, it sometimes happens over time. Making the commitment to offering an excellent employee experience is simply the right thing to do. That includes taking action when things go astray.
- It helps deliver good customer service. It’s very difficult for unhappy, stressed, burned out employees to deliver exceptional customer service. There’s a lot of truth in the statement that “happy employees deliver good customer service”. Creating a positive work environment helps the customer relationship.
- It resonates with customers. Speaking of customers, there’s a trend that organizations need to pay attention to. Customers are making buying decisions based on the perception they have about the company as an employer. Treat employees badly and your customers might decide to go to your competition.
Work continues to be an important part of our lives, so how we do the work is an important part of the employee experience. And that’s a key factor not only in the area of employee recruitment and retention but also from the company’s bottom-line results.
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